Research progress on moxibustion therapy for improving chemotherapy-induced bone marrow suppression

Moxibustion therapy is an important traditional non-pharmacological treatment in traditional medicine for improving chemotherapy-induced bone marrow suppression. By reviewing recent studies on moxibustion intervention for chemotherapy-induced bone marrow suppression, this article summarized and analyzed the current research status. In clinical studies, moxibustion therapy that tonifies the spleen, nourishes the kidneys, warms yang, and nourishes blood has been verified to be effective for chemotherapy-induced bone marrow suppression, but the efficacy may vary among individuals receiving different chemotherapy regimens. Experimental studies have shown that moxibustion therapy primarily improves chemotherapy-induced bone marrow suppression by repairing bone marrow tissue structure, increasing the amounts of hematopoietic stem cells, improving bone marrow hematopoietic microenvironment, repairing bone marrow cell DNA, and regulating signaling pathways such as Notch, Wnt, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B/mammalian target protein of rapamycin and other signaling pathways. Future research can further systematically reveal the mechanisms of moxibustion therapy, such as alleviating hematopoietic stem cell aging induced by chemotherapy, regulating miRNAs to improve bone marrow suppression, and investigate the sensitivity of patients with bone marrow suppression caused by different chemotherapy regimens to moxibustion therapy, in order to complete and standardize the application protocols of moxibustion.